Filed under: Internet, Windows, Productivity, Beta

There seems to be an explosion of applications designed to help you schedule group meetings. In the last few days we’ve covered When Is Good, a simple, free web-based solution, and Jiffle, a desktop based application that synchronizes with Outlook and Google Calendar. Today Tungle launched a public beta of a desktop application that looks a lot like Jiffle.

When you install Tungle it will automatically find your contacts and schedule from Microsoft Outlook. When you want to schedule a new meeting you can choose times that work for you, choose from your contacts list, and send out an invitation. If the recipients are also Tungle users they will see your availability in their own calendars. If they’re not, you can create and share a “Tungle Space,” which is a web-based meeting planner. People can then view your recommended times, and choose one and/or leave comments.

Tungle is free while in beta. It’s not clear what the pricing will be when the application emerges from beta. In related news, Jiffle wasn’t available for download when we took our first look at it the other day, but you can now download the application from the Jiffle web site.

[via Mobility Site]

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Filed under: Products and services, Apple Inc (AAPL), Starbucks (SBUX), Marketing and advertising

Starbucks Corporation (NASDAQ: SBUX) and Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL)’s iTunes Store are teaming up again to promote “Song of the Day” cards for free downloads from the on the web music store. The first time the two companies worked together was last October when the iTunes WiFi Music Store was launched and featured promotion through the coffee chain. With the renewal, the promotion will follow a more “traditional” music release with new songs released each week on a Tuesday as the “Pick of the Week“. The first program resulted in more than 6 million downloads and the new program is hoped to reach a significantly lower figure: 1.5 million downloads.

More than 7,000 Starbucks locations will take part in the program that will also promote videos in addition to songs. It started this week with the new song “Washington Square” from the Counting Crows and future songs will be pulled from a huge cache of artists, including Starbucks’ own Hear Music label artists’ Carly Simon and Hilary McRae.

As it was last fall, this program is a nice promotion for artists and online music. Starbucks’ Hilary McRae’s first single was one of the tracks in the “Song of the Day” promotion which indicates it is also a nice place for the coffee chain to promote its own label and the CDs that are typicaly on sale in the stores. We can only hope that the program is as successful as its predecessor and that the 1.5 million figure mark is overtaken swiftly.

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Filed under: International markets, Google (GOOG), Marketing and advertising, News Corp’B’ (NWS)

News Corp. (NYSE: NWS) has not had its fill of the revenue failure of MySpace in the U.S., so it wants to try to address that problem overseas.

According to The Wall Street Journal, “Every single market we’re going [into], we’re seeing significant growth in revenues across the board,” said Travis Katz, senior vice president in charge of MySpace’s international business.

Maybe the MySpace model of trying to sell advertising to marketers who want to reach social network users who have no interest in looking at ads won’t be such a failure outside the U.S.

MySpace might actually be doing worse, but in late 2006, Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) signed at three-year deal making it the exclusive search engine for the social network and guaranteeing News Corp. $900 million in shared ad revenue. Without that, it is safe to say that MySpace’s revenue would be quite a bit lower.

The economic argument for making money on social networks posits that the tens of millions of people who go to MySpace and rival Facebook are good targets for marketing messages. It appears that this isn’t true. Trying to arrange social network consumers based on interests is almost impossible because they often disclose tiny about their activities or habits.

Getting more users outside the US will not help MySpace. It will go further in proving that marketers are better off sticking to vertical sites and portals where at least the content interests of users is known.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

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Filed under: Good news, Products and services, Management, Consumer experience, Competitive strategy, Starbucks (SBUX), Marketing and advertising, Battle of the Brands

The idea of serving customer needs and desires is rooted in the age-old notion of listening to the customer. One company taking consumer input to a whole new level is our favorite specialty coffee vendor, Starbucks Corp. (NASDAQ: SBUX).

How about ice cubes made from Starbucks’ own coffee, so you can cool that java without diluting the savory stuff? That’s what one customer suggested. What do you think? Another thoughtful consumer thinks that Starbucks customers might like shelves in the restrooms to rest their coffee on while “taking care of business.” A nice idea perhaps, but I believe that the practice of taking consumables into restrooms is discouraged in most instances.

At least one Starbucks customer request has already had a major effect. Reusable “splash sticks” have been introduced by the company to reduce coffee splash through the sipping lid of its sturdy cups.

The entire focus of this new Starbucks business model is summed up by CEO Howard Schultz, who was quoted in BusinessWeek as saying that he wanted “to open up a dialogue with customers and build up this muscle inside our company.” Mr. Schultz would like to make response to the consumer a cornerstone of company tradition.

So, what do you think? Should Starbucks initiate valet parking? Should it have barristas on roller skates cruising its parking lots? Maybe it should offer complimentary mocha caramel biscuits for the dogs that accompany its customers? What about individual caffeine packets so coffee addicts could personally customize their morning buzz?

One thing’s for sure, Starbucks’ says it’s listening. Now is your chance to prove that you’re a marketing genius. Howard Schultz wants to return the company to its former glory. Give him a piece of your mind, would ya?

Gary Sattler is a freelance blogger. He does not knowingly hold interest in the companies mentioned in this blog post.

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